MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Majority of Uruguayan support sheltering children from the Syrian conflict

The initiative from President Mujica has an overall backing from 66% according to the latest public opinion poll

Uruguay's president Jose Mujica proposal to shelter Syrian children refugees from the ongoing Middle East conflict has the support of 66% of the population and is rejected by 23%, according to a public opinion poll released this week by a local television channel.

 Even when the poll from Cifra shows different percentages according to the political inclination of interviews, all of them express a majority support for bringing Syrian children and even families to shelter them in Uruguay.

The most enthusiast are those identified with the ruling coalition, 85% with only 9% against, while in the two main opposition parties, support stands at 45% in favor and 42% against.

The phone poll covered the whole of Uruguay's territory, included 1.000 interviews and was done between 4 and 15 July, with an error margin of three percentage points.

For this purpose the government of President Mujica has named a special inter-ministerial committee which will be responsible for selecting and preparing the children to be sheltered in the country. There is no exact number of how many will be involved but the original estimate was more than 120.

The committee has representatives from the ministries of Foreign affairs, Human rights office and delegates from the Social development, Healthcare, Defense and Housing ministries. NGOs and the Refugees Commission will also be involved. Foreign Affairs will chair the committee.

The purpose of the committee will be the selection of the Syrian beneficiaries and consideration of possible “family reunification” conditions, according to the official decree that also will receive support from the UN Refugees High Commissioner, international cooperation and all those organizations willing to contribute with funds for the government policy.